50 years after Loving: What happened to the couple who pushed for interracial marriage?

This Jan. 26, 1965 file photo shows Mildred Loving and her husband Richard P Loving. Fifty years after Mildred and Richard Loving’s landmark legal challenge shattered the laws against interracial marriage in the U.S., some couples of different races still talk of facing discrimination, disapproval and sometimes outright hostility from their fellow Americans.

SOURCE: Associated Press

50 years after Loving: What happened to the couple who pushed for interracial marriage?

It was on June 12, 1967 that marriage laws in the United States would be forever changed.

In a landmark case, the Supreme Court unanimously ruled that states could not have laws that barred interracial marriages.

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The case, Loving v. Virginia, was brought by Richard and Mildred Loving, an interracial couple who had been imprisoned after authorities discovered they were married.

The Lovings married in 1958 in Washington D.C. because Virginia's Racial Integrity Act of 1924 made "mixed" marriages a felony offense.

The Lovings had both been arrested and jailed after police raided their Virginia home to find them sleeping in their bed. Richard, a white man, and Mildred, a black woman of Native American descent, were each sentenced to a year in jail and were forced to move away from Virginia.

In 2016, a movie based on the story was released to critical acclaim. "Loving" earned actress Ruth Negga an Oscar nomination for her portrayal of Mildred Loving.

But whatever became of the couple who changed the face of marriage in America?

Following their triumphant win, the Lovings returned to Virginia to raise their three children. The Lovings remained married until 1975 when Richard was tragically killed when a drunk driver slammed into his car.

Mildred never remarried and died in 2008 at the age of 69.

The legacy of the Lovings continues today.

The AP reports that 17% of newlyweds in 2015 were interracial marriages. While it is still low, it is up from he 1967 numbers where only 3% of new marriages were interracial.